Asylum (1972)

Good movie but grossly overrated

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Yet another slice of early '70s British horror, once again in an anthology format, and from who else but Amicus, who were responsible for lots of films like this. ASYLUM has a powerful Gothic atmosphere which literally oozes off the screen in the opening moments, when the mansion appears and a loud, Gothic score plays out. There is another good scene where Powell looks at a number of classic paintings of insane people while the music again plays loudly, this is reminiscent of the opening titles of BEDLAM. The film benefits from being written by Robert Bloch (the man who wrote PSYCHO).The first story is a typical tale which looks like it was filmed on the same set as the Terry-Thomas segment from THE VAULT OF HORROR. It would be an interesting if oversimplistic tale if it wasn't for the amazing special effects which are really striking when first seen. The severed, animated limbs are all moved ingeniously and you can never quite work out how they are moved. The use of the crinkly brown paper on the soundtrack is also effective, and quite simply these moving body parts are some of the best special effects ever to be seen in a '70s British horror film.The second story has a more complex plot and is once again enlivened by some original special effects. The horrors of the landlord demanding money and the moving dummy are nicely juxtaposed throughout the story, which makes you really feel for the poor tailor involved in the hassle. Peter Cushing is once again on top form as the man who wants to bring his deceased son back to life, giving a moving performance of grief, anguish and finally desperation. The special effects are mainly involved in the climax where a shop dummy comes to life, and take the form of a shimmering, shiny suit. The effects are quite startling as the colours twist and fade in quick succession and it's definitely different. A bit of originality goes a long way in these films.Of course there had to be a dud somewhere in the film and the third story is it. It's a little tale of psychological trauma, and, while it has its interest, it doesn't really fit into the formula which these films have. Charlotte Rampling puts in a good performance as the tortured Barbara, while Britt Ekland and James Villiers lend solid support, but they can't do much with the bland story which has been addressed many times before, and an ending which you can spot a mile off. It's definitely not one to write home about and has no redeeming qualities at all really, apart from the fact that its thankfully short.Happily, if you manage to sit through the third story, the fourth story is just about the best of the bunch. Herbert Lom puts in an excellent performance as Doctor Byron, a man who's created life in his own image. The story also ties in nicely with the wraparound story involving Powell and Magee, and the scenes in which the doll comes to life and makes its way downstairs are genuinely spooky, helped by the return of the Gothic music which played over the opening credits. The ending is also unexpected and a classic twist. Patrick Magee puts in a solid performance and Robert Powell is a charismatic lead.All in all, ASYLUM is an excellent example of the anthology film at its best, and definitely one of the best films that Amicus put out. With a superb cast, excellent special effects and three out of four stories also being good, it really is unmissable entertainment for those of us who enjoy classic British horror.

I'm a big fan of classic horror and really enjoy the anthologies that were produced by Amicus in the late 60s and early 70s. This particular movie has its' entertaining moments, but by and large is not one of their best efforts, in my opinion.To me the problems stem from the screen writing in this movie, which is a little dull. They assemble an all-star cast, but don't really give them a lot to work with as there are no great characters in this movie. The biggest problem, though, is that most of these stories feel very well-worn. I will fully admit that part of that is the origins of the stories that they were adapted from, though. Robert Bloch goes back to the 30s, writing for some of the biggest pulp mags of the time like WEIRD TALES. He was a very popular horror writer and a lot of these stories are now more than 50 years old, if not older. As a result, they've been stolen and re-used many times since in the horror genre. While I recognize that the ideas originate in these old stories, I'm just being honest when I feel like a lot of them are "been there, done that".The framing story in this anthology is one of the better ones and a creative way to wrap them all together. A doctor is interviewing at a loony bin. The shrink in charge tells him that the former head is now a patient and his test is to meet all of the patients and determine which is the former director."Frozen Fear" is the first of the segments and is your standard story of a love triangle gone bad. A husband kills his wife to escape with his mistress and, in true old school horror fashion, the wife gets her vengeance in the end. The segment definitely could have stood to have a little more gore. I'm not usually one to judge an older movie on lack of grue, but this one just calls out for it. The biggest issue is that none of the characters have any depth so that I feel anything for their fates. Further, the effects of the body parts don't stand up very well."The Weird Tailor" features a stereotypical Yiddish man who's tasked with creating a special suit by Peter Cushing. He's given special fabric and instructions that it must only be worked on after midnight. It's a fairly tame story that woefully under-utilizes the talents of Mr. Cushing. It ends with a twist and some more bad effects."Lucy Comes to Stay" may be the most generic of the segments, featuring Charlotte Rampling and Britt Eklund as two friends out to set her free from the confines of her brother's over-protection. It's fairly obvious, right from the start, what the final twist is going to be as it's just been done so many times over. That would be forgivable if the journey there were a little more entertaining, but the run time of the segment is too short to give the characters any depth and it just falls flat."Mannikins of Horror" is the final segment, which bleeds back into the framing story. Herbert Lom stars as a doll maker and he's another great actor who's given about 5 minutes of screen time and nothing much to do. This kind of story goes all the way back to THE DEVIL DOLL in the 30s and just isn't very interesting to me.Then, the final twist comes during the last of the framing narrative, which I will admit I didn't see coming the first time I viewed this movie.I'm not a modern jaded viewer who's just bashing an old movie because I "don't get it" at all. As stated before, I like these old movies. I'd put Amicus' TALES FROM THE CRYPT as one of the best horror films of the 70s. I've watched this one a few times and just find the ideas the most boring and the stories to be the least interesting of the Amicus films I've seen.

A young psychiatrist interviews four inmates in a mental asylum to satisfy a requirement for employment. He hears stories about 1) the revenge of a murdered wife, 2) a tailor who makes a suit with some highly unusual qualities, 3) a woman who questions her sanity when it appears that her brother is conspiring against her, and 4) a man who builds tiny toy robots with lifelike human heads.With direction from Roy Ward Baker and with stories adapted from the work of Robert Bloch ("Psycho"), how can you go wrong? You simply cannot. The highlight of the anthology is "The Weird Tailor". Not just because it has Peter Cushing, but because the story has the best potential. And, even in short form, it was done quite well.Amicus was the greatest British horror studio and their anthologies are unmatched. This is one of the better ones, and well worth watching.

"Asylum" (1972) is one of seven horror anthology pictures released by Hammer rival Amicus over an eight-year period. It had been preceded by "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors," "Torture Garden" and The House That Dripped Blood," and would soon be followed by "Tales From the Crypt," "Vault of Horror" and "From Beyond the Grave." Here, in a rather clever framing story, a young doctor applies for a position at the Dunsmoor Insane Asylum and is given a very unusual test for qualification: He must interview the asylum's four inmates (a very exclusive crew, given the size of this pile!) and determine which of them is the residence's ex-head doctor, who had recently gone mad. Thus, the interviews reveal four highly interesting tales. In "Frozen Fear," a woman (beautiful Barbara Parkins) tells of the homicide that she and her lover (Richard Todd) had perpetrated on his wife (yummy Sylvia Syms). This is a suspenseful segment with a good number of jolts. The grisliest tale in the film, it nonetheless contains the picture's most amusing line: "Rest in pieces." Next, in "The Weird Tailor," Barry Morse (unrecognizable here) tells of the weird CUSTOMER he had made a suit for recently. That customer, portrayed by the great Peter Cushing, unfortunately turns out to be short on cash but well loaded with horrible secrets. Some sympathetic characters and a chilling windup really put this segment over. In "Lucy Comes to Stay," a woman (scrumptious Charlotte Rampling) tells of the murders that her best friend Lucy (not-bad-looking Britt Ekland) committed on her brother and nurse. But does Lucy really exist, or is she just a figment of a disturbed young woman's mind? This tale blurs the fine line between fantasy and reality most effectively...until its conclusion, that is. Finally, in "Mannikins of Horror," an inmate (Herbert Lom) tells the young doctor of his experiments in placing his own soul into a foot-high look-alike doll that he has created, leading to some inevitable mayhem. "Asylum" features some very effective direction from Roy Ward Baker, a playful and quite ingenious script from Robert "Psycho" Bloch, an excellent score by Douglas Gamley, and a sicko surprise ending that I doubt anyone will see coming. Thus, I'd say that a person would have to be crazy NOT to check into this "Asylum"!